The dangerous stunt that left Ana de Armas in tears: “You know, it’s not a natural thing”
Cinema is a medium caught up in risk; the very nature of the art form is a gamble.
One creative decision might determine whether a movie will sink or swim, whether that be a bold casting choice or a stylistic experiment. But it’s the courage of a filmmaker or an actor who throws themselves into the heat of the flames that results in the best art, even if it involves a situation that could result in life and death hanging in the balance, either outcome a potential possibility.
Dangerous stunts have often been used to elevate a piece of cinema to the next level, as pioneered by Buster Keaton, who loved nothing more than to put himself in situations that could leave him paralysed – or even dead – for the sake of his art. Take Steamboat Bill Jr, for example, which saw the wall of a house fall as the actor stood in front, aligned with the space in a window so that he narrowly missed being crushed. He knew that the risk of it going wrong was high, but Keaton didn’t care, which made him such a legendary figure.
Since then, on-screen stunts have varied in their brilliance, with certain actors taking it upon themselves to go above and beyond for the sake of an impressive stunt. Tom Cruise is the most obvious example here, who once perched on top of the Burj Khalifa for the sake of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, proving that no mission has to be impossible if you’ve got the same level of fearlessness as him. How he does it, we don’t know.
Ana de Armas, who is reportedly set to appear alongside Cruise in the upcoming film Deeper, isn’t as comfortable with stunts as her future co-star, however, finding herself out of her depth in her recent film, Ballerina. As the star of many big-budget movies that often fall into the action genre, de Armas knows that stunts are part and parcel of her roles, but the John Wick spin-off required the actor to do something that ended up making her cry.
The Ballerina stunt that pushed Ana de Armas to tears
During an interview with Den of Geek, the film’s stunt coordinators Jackson Spidell and Stephen Dunley discussed the challenges of some of the movie’s most risky scenes, which included the use of flamethrowers. When the risk of receiving severe burns is a strong possibility, you’re going to be on high alert, and the stress of shooting a certain scene left de Armas deeply shaken.
“You know it’s not a natural thing to deliberately set someone on fire. So for her coming in and doing it, there was an emotional thing,” revealed Dunley. “Obviously, flamethrowers are dangerous weapons, so we’ve gotta have a lot of safety procedures in place and spend the time to be able to do that.”
Ballerina, which also stars Anjelica Huston, Keanu Reeves, and Gabriel Byrne, was only released at the start of June, but so far, it’s closing in on $100 million in terms of its total box office gross, with fans of the celebrated John Wick franchise flocking to see the newest installment.
